Manufacture of Microcrystalline Cellulose fromEucalyptus globulusWood Using an Environmentally Friendly Biorefinery Method

Abstract

In this work, hemiceluloses and lignin were solubilized by successive steps of autohydrolysis and delignification, and the resulting solids were processed to obtain microcrystalline cellulose. Eucalyptus globulus wood chips were treated with hot, compressed water under selected conditions to cause the hydrolytic breakdown of heteroxylan into substituted saccharides. The xylan-depleted solids were treated with acetic acid under optimized conditions to remove lignin, leaving a solid phase with high cellulose content. This latter was subjected to Totally Chlorine Free (TCF) bleaching to yield microcrystalline cellulose. These sequence autohydrolysis-organosolv delignification-TCF bleaching enabled the selective separation of hemicelluloses (which were mainly converted into soluble saccharides), lignin (as compounds soluble into acetic acid), and microcrystalline cellulose, according to an environmentally friendly biorefinery method.

Furfural production from birch hemicelluloses by two-step processing: a potential technology for biorefineries

“…This goal can be achieved by a hot water extraction (also called autohydrolysis, hydrothermal treatment, or water prehydrolysis) (Yáñez et al 2009;Helmerius et al 2010;Gullón et al 2011;Vila et al 2012), which is considered to be an environmentally friendly technology and enables a selective separation of soluble hemicellulose-derived saccharides, while the solid phase residue is enriched in cellulose and lignin. The latter can be further fractionated via autohydrolysis, for example, to produce pulp (Helmerius et al 2010), dissolve pulp (Borrega et al 2013;Testova et al 2014), microcrystalline cellulose (Vila et al 2014), or sugar solutions suitable as fermentation media for the biotechnological manufacture of chemicals or fuels (Garrote et al 2008).…”

Enhancement of Hydrotropic Fractionation of Poplar Wood Using Autohydrolysis and Disk Refining Pretreatment: Morphology and Overall Chemical Characterization

“…The industrial utilization of lignocellulosic biomass has been considered as the key for access to an integrated production of chemicals, materials and energy of the future. Lignocellulosic materials (LCMs) may potentially replace petroleum as a raw material to obtain a variety of products adapted to market demands [1]. The next generation of biofuel will be produced from lignocellulosic feedstocks (wood, agricultural residues, and dedicated energy crops) through the fermentation of sugars yielded from hydrolysis of two key components of lignocellulose: the cellulose and hemicellulose, but lignin, as the abundant biopolymer, is underutilized [2,3].…”

Preparation of biodegradable foam from walnut shells treated by subcritical water

“…So far, subcritical water has been used to convert wood biomass into saccharides, heavy oil, and other valuable chemicals . However, few researchers have considered using the residue after subcritical water hydrolysis or autohydrolysis of biomass . The residue after subcritical water treatment should be rich in lignin and cellulose, because hemicellulose decomposes at a lower temperature than cellulose and lignin .…”